Google now censors this blog in violation of the first amendment. Google should be tried for crimes against the Constitution.
Revelation 20:10
And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Copyright 2006 John Best

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Proof of the Neurodiversity Fraud, Amanda Baggs

There is a more complete history of the whole story of Baggs' fraud here.(Update 7/16/09)

I recently came across this letter written by Amanda Baggs over 9 years ago when she was a teenager.

"In reality, many properly medicated people with mental illness (including myself, diagnosedparanoid schizophrenic) are gentle people who have to go through torture from their own minds. I wish you would not make this torture any worse by printing only negative articles about mentally ill people. Maybe you could print articles about the good things that mentally ill people do.I personally plan to work with autistic children and become a psychologist. Some mentally ill people are already psychologists and psychiatrists, using their own experiences to help others. Please show the good accomplishments of mentally ill people, not just the bad ones." Amanda Baggs

It seems that Amanda was a paranoid schizophrenic back in 1997. Lately though, she has decided to be autistic. Did Amanda decide to become autistic so she could land the starring role in "Getting the Truth Out"? Some actresses get their start with pornography. Others get their foot in the door in Hollywood by impersonating autistic people. This would be understandable if Amanda was simply an actress. But, she's much more than that. She's one of the models for Neurodiversity, the strange cult of lunatics who insist that curing autism is killing the autistic person.

Amanda now plays the role of an autistic woman who does not want to be cured. She also sings while claiming she can not speak. She's very friendly with Kathleen Seidel who visits her and drives her places. Amanda makes Youtube videos where she plays the flute, waves her hands around and uses a machine to talk for herself. I wondered how she could make the machine talk while she was doing all of that hand waving. I must surmise that she had some help. I wonder if it was K Seidel who helped with this? It would certainly serve Seidel's purpose well to have this allegedly autistic woman yakking about respect for autistics and howling that she did not want to be cured. Amanda even claims she wouldn't want to be able to talk if she could. Now, I have heard from several sources that Amanda can, in fact, speak. So, I guess it was one of those little white lies when she said whe didn't want the ability to talk. She already had it.

So, Amanda, now that we know you're a total fraud, will you tell us who hired you to try to make the general public think that severely disabled children would want to remain in that nightmarish state? Can you produce one cured child who asked to be reinjected with thimerosal so their brain could be rescrewed up? We know that Kathleen is much more concerned with discrediting the scientists who help children than with actually helping the kids. Did she put you up to this? Were you hired by a drug company? They would love to have real autistic people running around telling the world that autism was something to be celebrated. Unfortunately for them, they can't find any who have their act together enough to do that. So you took on that role.

I always thought you were a fraud. Now we know. It's time for Seidel and all the other creeps from Neurodiversity to close up shop. You've been proven to be nothing but frauds with this letter. It's time to stop harming children with your deranged philosophy. As if anyone whose behavior was truly so bizarre that they had to be institutionalized could do all of these things for themselves. My claim that Neurodiversity was a sham cult was always based on simple logic. Now we have the proof. Your days of imitating severely disabled children and trying to make the world think it's not so bad are over. I hope someone looks into pressing charges against all of you.

Anon 2, They did not misdiagnose autism before Kanner because it did not exist.Other Anon, What did she claim she was before she claimed to be a paranoid schizophrenic? Maybe she's like a bisexual who flips a coin to decide if they're gay or straight each day. Either way, the only thing that matters is that she's a proven liar no matter what she says now.

The neuroinsane support their actress by calling me a liar (I didn't write the letter), attacking Kanner and threatening me. That's about par for the course when you've been exposed as a fraud and there is nothing you can say.

Just wait until the Smoking Gun gets ahold of all the information about amanda and exposes her. They are very much into exposing this sort of stuff. She wants to be famous?! Just wait, more to come, more to come.

Let me get this straight. This woman wrote a letter claiming to be mentally ill- schizophrenic to be precise. What year did she write this?So, she informed the world she was mentally ill. She did this of her own free will I presume. That is a big step, to tell people you have a mental illness. A move I don't think people would take lightly. She had to think long and hard about making this proclamation, right? I mean she must have really thought beyond a shadow of a doubt hse is a schizophrenic. Now she has decided she wasn't really mentally ill- she's autistic. Are you sure this time? Who told you you are autistic? What if a "better" diagnosis label comes along will she become yet something else?I've seen her type and heard "her words". I wondered either it was someone else putting words in her mouth, or she really isn't autistic at all and it is just an act. Either way Amanda is a fraud. Neuro-diversity is a sham and a cult. Thanks John for exposing these people for what they really are.

Anon, Why should I believe anything I read on her blog? Besides, it's too long-winded to ever bother reading all of what she writes. Sort of like Kathleen Seidel, maybe Kathleen "helps" her with the blog.

You do realize at some point that all of your libelous, stalking, paranoid rantings are going to get you in a lot of trouble? After all, Generation "Rescue Angels" aren't the only ones who know how to file lawsuits and hire private investigators.

Many adult autistics get wrong psychotic diagnoses before the correct one comes (based on a thorough examination of the case histories). Tantam has researched this phenomenon as part of his clinical practice... and it's usually down to slack practice on the part of the earlier diagnostician.

Sorry to piss on your bonfire, but the facts are out there. You just need to look for them.

David, She was not an adult when she claims she was diagnosed with schizo.. Generalities regarding the profession do not have anything to do with this particular case. We now know she's just an actress so it doesn't matter.

Anon, I'm not the lazy jerk who never learned how to write. Her functional illiteracy is not my problem.David, What should we bet on? Should we bet that no person who is paid to diagnose autism could possibly miss a "train wreck"? Should we wager that a paranoid schizophrenic is liable to say anything to gain attention? Should we bet that schizo's are prone to lying?

I could not get through reading everything on the "Getting the Truth Out" website. I understood the point she was trying to make but it was just a little too much and her message lost its effectiveness. I do not doubt that Amanda was mistreated by those entrusted with her care and education. I don't doubt that she was (and probably still is) a victim of exploitation. But she can communicate her thoughts and feelings and share her opinions. My students can't (at least not in a way that is easily understood by others.) My students need their parents and myself to advocate for them and to teach them basic skills, and teach them how to communicate. Maybe I am being overly sensitive but she makes me feel like I should be considered a child abuser simply because I would dare to try and improve the quality of life for my students. I feel as though her opinion is that I should just leave them alone. If she is trying to make educators feel guilty she is doing a pretty good job of it.

Yeah now she is going to be doing some serious damage control. I think the lady on you tube accusing her of stealing her identity is legit. Maybe schizophrenia didn't get her enough attention so she became a non verbal autistic instead. Pathetic liar!

John Best Jr. admitted to believing he has Asperger's or that he's one of the evil ND himself. He has never denied that he wrote that. He was asking for access to a ND only group, and saying that he thought he could get some help there.

The really funny thing is that amanda claims the woman on youtube is a schizophrenia and constantly accuses people of copying her life. Amanda even went to post that this youtube woman accused one of "amanda's friends" of being a copy cat, I wonder why the woman on youtube didn't blog about all of "amandas friends". Maybe b/c they dont exist!

You said: "Generalities regarding the profession do not have anything to do with this particular case."

And I said: "Wanna put money on that?"

I'd assumed that you'd find it pretty clear what I was suggesting the bet would be about.

Your suggestions had nothing to do with what I had suggested.

You really are clutching at straws, man. Time to let go. Really.

Start doing something good.

You claim to be an officer and a gentleman, and to certainly not be rude. So let's see this.

Attacking people who disagree with you in this manner (basically on the level of piss-poor journalism) is not gentlemanly, and not the behaviour of an officer and is pretty damn rude. I've seen (from your behaviour towards me of late) that you are capable of being gentlemanly (and I hope that my reciprocation of that type of behaviour has demonstrated that I can too).

Amanda's no fraud, so don't treat her like one. I agre with you on the fraud that exists in psychiatry (and Amanda was as much fucked over by that particular fraud as I was, as your son has been, and pretty much everyone who gets sent to a lazy psychiatrist). You say that autistics deserve some help, and Amanda is autistic. This sort of attack is not helping anyone.

On the topic of psychiatry: I would post on your other thread, but this is the most recent thread and I figured youd be more likely to read here first... I wonder what you think of this (I'll post the Finnish original and then give you a translation of it):

Last spring during a psychology lecture, one of my college pals - a nurse working in the mental health bureau - told (anonymously, of course) - that one of their clients had died on the general health care side.

The client in question had that same day more than usual to get into A&E because of heart-related pains (a somatic complaint). But, because his papers contained information that he'd been a current client of the mental health bureau, these heart-related pains had been interpreted as being 'psychological' and he was sent home to day. This was no joke.

My comment: whatever you think of American medicine, John... be thankful you're not in Finland... you'd be completely screwed here (not a comment on you, but - rather - a comment on the state of Finnish health care).

David, What do you think an officer would do when dealing with propaganda that can damage the morale of his allies while helping the enemy? Would you say cutting it some slack is an option? Amanda may be autistic today. What will she be tomorrow? She's not as low functioning as she would have us believe.

I was born with some atypicalities. I gained a few skills and then lost them. I gained them again, tenuously, and then began losing some of them again around puberty. The ones that started gradually cutting out at that age included: Comprehension of some aspects of my surroundings (such as the meaning of words), ability to use speech, and ability to move voluntarily in some ways. This is written about in this paper, which only came out in 2000, 8 years after it started happening to me. I have met people with Asperger diagnoses who can\'t speak as adults due to this phenomenon. It was someone like that who showed me the paper to begin with, after seeing me freeze in place and move slowly and lose speech for a large part of a conference (before which I had no idea it happened to anyone else).

Between that and other things going on, I was scared of the real world. I attempted to construct a fantasy world where everyone understood me and communication was effortless (telepathic), and where what happened in my dreams was part of reality. I attempted to live as if that world were real despite the fact that I knew it wasn\'t, because I thought maybe if I tried hard enough I could believe in it (which never happened). Tony Attwood says this is common in autistic girls during adolescence. Tony Attwood\'s writing on the subject did not exist when it was happening to me.

I was seen by a number of specialists, starting when I was 13, for various obvious changes in my behavior.

A neurologist I saw at age 13 said I had complex-partial seizures (true but not the whole story).

A psychiatrist I saw at age 15 said I was autistic (wrote PDD-NOS on paper but said autism to my parents and told them this was because in most people\'s eyes \"autism\" meant \"hopeless\" and he didn\'t want to send that message to insurance), and also diagnosed me with central nervous system disorder not otherwise specified (referring to the changes in skills), dissociative disorder not otherwise specified (referring to the fact that I was trying to lose myself in daydreams), and psychotic disorder not otherwise specified (referring to the fact that it wasn\'t obvious from the outside whether or not I believed my daydreams or just got intensely absorbed in them).

Another neurologist did a brain scan, again suspected seizures, and said that I had frontal and temporal lobe anomalies.

A neuropsychologist I\'d been sent to originally at age 13, said when I was 15, that he didn\'t believe in labeling people so he would just describe me. He said that I was born with a neurological disorder. He said that the various stresses (internal and external) of puberty had overloaded my underdeveloped coping mechanisms and that I was now obviously severely decompensated and unable to care for myself. He recommended a residential facility with a combination of neurological, neuropsychologic, and neuropsychiatric services.

The residential facility that ended up agreed to, was one with a strong psychoanalytic bent. They said I was psychotic from early childhood (you can\'t see hallucinations or delusions in a young child, and they confirmed when my parents asked that they were talking about the traits otherwise diagnosed as autistic), and became schizophrenic later on. They believed I did believe in my daydreams and was therefore \"delusional\". They blamed my upbringing, particularly my mother, for my \"psychosis\". They prescribed twice the toxic dose of a medication and misdiagnosed the resulting obvious seizures as psychiatric, keeping me on that medication for nearly a year before a real doctor saw what they were doing. And they made me repeat that I heard voices (if I refused, I was \"in denial\"). They also engaged in physical abuse and intense psychological manipulation (such as telling me I\'d die if I disobeyed them and that they would kill the person I was and replace me with someone different inside my head, etc). Because they were not training me to communicate, only to repeat what they said, I was unable to let my parents know of a couple different life-threatening problems that were going on (fortunately my parents noticed anyway).

As you can see, everyone agreed that I\'d been different from birth and then experienced more trouble later on, they just did not agree on what. Autism used to be considered a branch of psychosis and I got some throwbacks. (The criteria for schizophrenia would still be met by most autistic people, which is why there are exclusion criteria.)

When I went off my meds and got away from some of these people, I had no hallucinations and no delusions. I tried to view myself as, and act as, totally normal, because I was not sure how much of anything they\'d thought had been true. What remained when I had decided I was normal, was that I was still autistic, and I still had immense and increasing difficulty with speech, voluntary movement, and comprehending certain aspects of my surroundings. I had no trouble with connecting to reality though, except inasfar as I had post-traumatic stress disorder from what happened to me in institutions. I also had poor stamina, which I later learned goes along with the speech/motor losses. These are not things I decided to experience, they were what was left when I decided to try believing in my normalcy. The stamina issues became obvious, for instance, because I took the same length of walks that I used to but fell down and couldn\'t get up. That sort of thing happened for all the things I tried to decide were normal.

Developmental services at that point would not take me without proof that I was diagnosed before the age of 18. If I did not have those diagnoses from the age of 14 and 15, I would be in psych services if anywhere, not developmental services. But, I\'m not, I\'m in developmental, because my doctor sent in proof that I\'d been diagnosed prior to that. They\'ve also seen my various misdiagnoses. They tell me those are a shame.

So basically, you\'re stuck with me as an autistic person. If you have trouble understanding the concept of change through time (including gradual change), or if you make assumptions about me (based partly on not bothering to read me) that don\'t turn out to be true, don\'t blame me for that. My functioning today is what it is today, it\'s not what it is 5, 10, 15, 20, or 25 years ago, I\'ve gained some things and lost some things (and gone back and forth on many) in that time. I can\'t change that through willpower, or else I quite possibly would, if only to avoid obnoxious assumptions and questions. It\'d be much easier for instance if I could talk communicatively (I don\'t know about you but I don\'t count vocal tics as speech), then I wouldn\'t get people going \"If you can\'t talk, you must never have been able to, so you\'re a liar when you say you can\'t.\" I am not high functionig or low functioning because I don\'t believe in the utility of those terms. Deal with it.

My diagnoses, as you can see plenty of documentation on (including a note that the psychiatrist in question has known me since before the time of the schizophrenia diagnosis, and is thus well aware of it), are autism, CFS, PTSD, and CNS disorder NOS (with sensory integration dysfunction, motor planning problems, and catatonia). I was able to explain to him the function of the daydreams eventually, therefore the psychosis thing is not listed (but if it were, it would be listed as thoroughly in the past, given that I don\'t unlike some people feel the need to run from reality anymore).

Amanda, The troubles with reality seem to have a lot in common with LSD. Your discussion of being told you'd be killed and have the person replaced with someone else sheds some light on the idea that curing the autistic person is killing them. Sane people know that acceptong this nonsense is insane. So, you're excused for not being able to understand that. However, that doesn't excuse the cult leaders of Neurodiversity for trying to twist this insane notion into something that applies to all autistic people. You say yourself you quite possibly would change the fact that you lost some things if you could. Now that's a sane thought. I expect that will displease Kathleen, Joseph and some other cult leaders who revel in your assertion that you do not want to be cured. Wanting to exist as you claim you do is insane. Your battles with reality notwithstanding, it sounds like you have given yourself hysterical autism as a coping mechanism. Why did you write in that letter that you had paranoid schizophrenia if you had been diagnosed with PDD a year earlier? Was it to draw attention to yourself? I think you liked the autism title because you found some acceptance by using it. You've made yourself famous within the autism community so you morphed out of schizophrenia into autism. I don't agree with your opinion that most autistics could also be called schizophrenic. Schizo's are crazy people. Autistic people simply can't pay attention long enough to function. They are not crazy or they would still be crazy after the autism is knocked out with chelation. You can ascribe all sorts of idiotic things to autistic people because they can't talk to disagree with you. The severe ones can't write to put you in your place. If you're going to say that most autistics are schizophrenic, it follows that there would be a high degree of schizophrenia among those with Asperger's. Do your neurodiverse pals with Asperger's also claim to be schizophrenic? Or, are they all stark raving lunatics? Let's not mince words about schizo's, they're severely crazed. Tell us how you make your talking machine work on your videos while you're wiggling your fingers. Does someone else do that for you or do you dub it in? From what you've said and your obvious ability to express yourself, you are much higher functioning than those who act like you but are in institutions because they can't function at all. I think you're overacting with your behaviors. When kids begin to emerge from the abyss of autism with chelation, the stimming goes down. As they start to function better, the secondary symptoms of autism abate. Yet, you still claim to have them with your acting. I don't believe you. If you believe yourself, perhaps this attention you've gained by playing this role has gone to your head. Perhaps psychiatry could help you deal with the schizophrenia. Also, your stamina will probably increase if you lose lots of weight and get some exercise. It might also help you to feel better about yourself which would be a good first step in overcoming your psychosis. In the meantime, I think you should stop your acting as it gives a very false impression of what autistic children have to overcome. I'd still like you or any other neurodiverse nitwit to find me a cured child who wants to revert to being autistic. Sorry, but you are out of your mind. Get lots more help.

You\'re the one who needs to check your grip on reality. I didn\'t say autistic people were schizophrenic, I said most meet the behavioral criteria for schizophrenia, except the part that says \"...and the person isn\'t autistic\". That\'s why that clause is in there, but it only got in there recently. Prior to that, autism was considered a form of childhood schizophrenia. Our mannerisms, social differences, echolalia, speech differences (or absence), etc, are all also included in the various criteria for schizophrenia, which are why the criteria say not to diagnose us with that if we\'re also autistic. (The people I met ignored those criteria, obviously.)

I wished I could lose my grip on reality, because reality kind of sucked at the time from my perspective, but I couldn\'t. (This is why if we have to use psych labels the dissociative disorder not otherwise specified label might have applied. But it doesn\'t now, because I abandoned that particular coping mechanism a long time ago.) But my grip on reality is pretty solid, it won\'t let go even if I try to.

The reason I said I was schizophrenic was because that was the diagnosis at the time and I had been made to go along with it. The prior autism diagnosis existed (otherwise I would not have been in the California DD system at all, since they point-blank told us they didn\'t accept people who were not diagnosed prior to 18), but at that point was not considered the primary one. I only was able to get the proper diagnoses sorted out after I was off meds and trying to be normal -- it showed what had been real and what hadn\'t, and my psychiatrist (as well as several others along the way) concurred.

You can think what you like about my contact with reality and my motivations. But something about that is very strange to me: You claim to be in contact with reality, and you claim that I am not. Yet you also seem to be claiming to telepathically be discerning my motivations and skill levels and so forth, whereas I don\'t think that\'s possible.

As far as my ability to express myself, you need to actually meet more autistic people. Many autistic people\'s academic skills are in advance of our daily living skills. If you\'d come to AutCom like you said you would, you would have found a large number of people, many of whom look stranger than I do, and many of whom communicate at my level or better. Some of whom move just like I do, and speak (as I probably would if I didn\'t have the additional gradual loss of that over time, and if I didn\'t have some really bad training in that regard). Divided about 50/50 on the issue of curation, I think.

The way I move is not a claim to anything about my abilities, it\'s just the way I move. If I try to stop moving this way for long (whichever way I\'m moving right then, which includes total immobility at times), I get overloaded faster and may end up having a meltdown, which I consider destructive. In many situations involving lots of new stimuli, I don\'t even have a choice. And because of not having a choice, I have to put up with obnoxious comments about my motivations, from people like you, when I\'d just as soon disappear at that point and not have to put up with the comments. (Note that I don\'t think there\'s anything inherently wrong with the way I move, but it\'s inconvenient when it gets you alternately called a \'retard\' and \'attention seeking\' by clueless people.)

And actually, I know a number of autistic people who, when they allow themselves to move this way, function better. Those around them might not think they function better, but in terms of actual things accomplished and lack of burnout and such, they do. So in many cases, looking more obviously autistic (and therefore expending much less energy on hiding it) makes autistic people more functional. What you\'re talking about would only happen if the actual need to do those things disappeared or decreased, rather than stayed the same or increased.

On the videos, I\'ve done one of two things. I\'ve either written everything out so all I have to do is press one button. Or more recently (after figuring out the software better) I\'ve dubbed it over.

My stamina was crap when I was underweight and had been exercising a lot (my favorite activity used to be walking and bicycle-riding), and has not improved much since then, so pardon me if I don\'t take you seriously on that.

I was made to act as a schizophrenic. I detested it. I don\'t act at this point at all. What you see is what you get. This is how I look, this is how I communicate, and those are for functional reasons, not to gain the attention of people egotistical enough to think I want it (in reality if I weren\'t so interested in human rights I would not do much of anything that attracted attention, because, although this may be beyond the comprehension of people who like attention, I like very little of it and can get all the attention I need from a tiny group of people, animals, etc in my vicinity). My reasons for doing these things are functional, not social, although I do notice many non-autistic people think social things are so utterly important that everyone shares their obsession with them.

What you think you see on the other hand (i.e. applying silly theories of autism to my behavior and then getting mad when I don\'t match the broken theories), is in the eye of the beholder.

And yes, in one sense, I\'m bona-fide crazy -- I have post-traumatic stress disorder. May you never be in the sort of situations I found myself in, and may you never have to understand how even totally normal people (not just over-literal autistic people) can be manipulated if someone controls the entire environment. It\'s called Stockholm syndrome, read up on it.

Oh and, drugs used to treat \"schizophrenia\" don\'t help me with reality contact any. They make it harder to think, and cause mild visual hallucinations (particularly in the evening), both of which put me somewhat out of touch with reality.

My psychiatrist is in agreement with me that there\'s not a lot that psychiatric treatment has to offer me, given that I am primarily autistic, which is permanent, and given that my primary source of PTSD is psychiatry (so the best \"treatment\" for it is among other things to not hang around psychiatrists). I did end up in a psych ward a few years ago (because of flashbacks) and they likewise didn\'t want much to do with me.

The criteria for schizophrenia, just so you\'re aware, are at least two of the following:

Most autistic people would meet 4 and 5 and possibly (if echolalic or showing many of the speech pattern of autistics who speak) 3.

What catatonic behavior refers to is at least two of these:

1. Stupor or motor immobility (catalepsy or waxy flexibility)

2. Hyperactivity that has no apparent purpose and is not influenced by external stimuli

3. Mutism or marked negativism

4. Peculiar behavior such as posturing, stereotypes, mannerisms or grimacing

5. Echolalia or echopraxia

Again, most autistic people have at least two of those (particularly 3, 4, and 5, but some of us -- me included -- develop 1 and 2 somewhere along the line). This is because \"catatonia\" is not limited to the category of \"schizophrenia\", but is a broader set of movement differences.

Thus, if there weren\'t something saying \"Don\'t diagnose schizophrenia in autistic people for the most part,\" then nearly all autistic people would meet the criteria. This does not mean autistic people are out of touch with reality, it means that we\'re easily mistaken for non-autistic people who are labeled schizophrenic, in terms of the diagnostic criteria. It\'s now in fact recommended in some places that any adult presenting with apparent catatonic schizophrenia be evaluated for autism in case they\'re mistaken.

And in terms of \"delusions,\" my one and only \"delusion\" that got me diagnosed, came from a fantasy world that I knew was fantasy but desperately wanted to believe in. If you know it\'s fantasy, no matter how desperately you want to believe it, it\'s not a delusion. It may be categorized as dissociation though, which I wouldn\'t argue with as much. If I had understood what was happening to me at the time I began losing skills, and if autism were better understood when I grew up, I probably never would have had to use this coping mechanism, and thus would never have been labeled delusional (unlike someone whose brain just generates delusions right and left). Tony Attwood claims that these days when people use that coping mechanism, stuff is explained to them. I didn\'t have that back then.

Amanda, Sorry kid, autism was never childhood schizophrenia. That's why Kanner told us it was something that hadn't been seen before. It is distinctly different from other psychosis. That's because it is not a psychosis, it is mercury poisoning. Autistic people have nothing inherently wrong with their brains, they simply have mercury preventing them from working properly. Your brain works well enough to communicate. Severely autistic people can't do that. So, while you claim to be opposed to distingiuishing beteween high and low functioning, I think it is of utmost importance to reach that determination to find the best way to help the child. As for your stamina, you should take me seriously. Being grossly obese or being underweight are both bad for you. You look like you've never exercised a day in your life. Exercise keeps your mind sharp. If you ever tried it, you'd know that. You say you were trying to be normal once you were off med's. Why don't you want to be normal now? Don't you think every non-functioning person would also like to be normal? What changed that now you advocate remaining abnormal? Did some people from Neurodiversity put you up to that to further their deranged agenda? Did they provide you with tapes of Droopy for you to rehearse with before you made your videos? You claim you were made to act like a schizophrenic and detested it. So, why would you voluntarily write a letter saying you were schizophrenic and use that diagnosis to give yourself credibility while supporting rights for disabled people? Was that the truth 9 years ago or was it just an excuse to have your opinion taken seriously? (Does anyone take a schizophrenic seriously?) You were schizophrenic when it suited your purpose. Now you're autistic to suit the purpose of Neurodiversity which is to make the drug companies look good. Do you get paid to write your blog and make your videos? I think you're just making things up as you go along in an effort to hold onto some credibility. Is someone helping you write this stuff?

No, nobody\'s helping me write this. I\'m writing what I can remember. Which is way easier (I know from experience) than writing a bunch of memorized crap. I hate the letter I wrote, because it\'s so NAMI-brainwashed-like (\"oh we mentally ill people are just fine as long as we stay on our meds\"), but I can\'t change it. Everyone does things they later disagree with, you\'ve found a letter I wrote that I only barely agree with at this point.

The reason I wanted to think I was normal was because the system taught me that if I was not normal I would be in a lot of really nasty environments indefinitely. I now disagree with that notion, but it\'s the notion I had at the time. One reason I do the advocacy work I do now is to show people who might grow up thinking the same things I did, that you don\'t have to be someone\'s definition of normal in order to live in your own place.

I used to exercise all the time, you don\'t know what you\'re talking about in that regard, and I\'ll just leave it at that.

I don\'t claim that autism is childhood schizophrenia. Only that it used to be diagnosed as such. That was the old term for it, was childhood schizophrenia, childhood psychosis, atypical development, etc. There were a number of names, not just one, and in the DSM, it came under childhood schizophrenia. Doesn\'t make it right, but that\'s what it was, and autistic people do generally meet the schizophrenia criteria aside from the exclusion of autism one. (Which does not make us schizophrenic, so quit putting words in my mouth.) Kanner did not have the final say on autism, he might have thought it was different but a number of people did not and some still do not (look in France for those). I do happen to think autism is different from psychosis, but that does not prevent it from being misdiagnosed as such.

And the conspiracy theories about imitating people are about as likely as the conspiracy theories about me as a paid actress. My invitation to meet me and my case manager at the place where he works stands. But that would ruin all your ideas about me, so I bet you\'ll never take me up on it.

"What do you think an officer would do when dealing with propaganda that can damage the morale of his allies while helping the enemy? Would you say cutting it some slack is an option?"

Amanda is not the enemy.

"Amanda may be autistic today. What will she be tomorrow? She's not as low functioning as she would have us believe."

She'll be autistic tomorrow. And the day after. And the day after that. She'll be autistic till she dies. No amount of misreading the facts to suit your own miconception of the world can ever change that.

By the way, you\'re still not showing any understanding of the fact that people change over time. All of this might make more sense to you if you could grasp that people\'s actions, self-concept, opinions, social environments, and skills all change over time, and that children and teens are not the same as adults in terms of a whole lot of things. Also it might help to note that there are a lot fewer conspiracies in the world than you imagine, and that I really am just an autistic woman living my life, maybe not in a way you like, and you\'re free not to like it, but I\'m certainly not living anyone else\'s life because I don\'t have time for that crap.

David, Amanda is an enemy of sanity. Anyone who listens to her foolish nonsense won't help their kid.She is a darling of Pharma by making autism look better than it really is with her acting. Your claiming she is autistic doesn't change the fact that she can't have it both ways. She is either schizophrenic and verbal or autistic and non-verbal, or autistic and verbal as some say. Some of this must be a lie.I think she's making a mockery of low functioning autistics who will never be able to read and write and will spend their lives in institutions. I don't believe her. She's going to lots of trouble to save some credibility here and, in the process, contradicting herself.She went on the offensive with Droopy which is typical of liars. There are other clues in the Getting the Truth Out thing that make it look like she's lying while posing for the pictures. Can you read faces? That dazed look in her eyes looks like more overacting. My son used to look something like that. He still can't read, write or talk but that dazed look is mostly gone. I would expect her eyes to look more alert as an indication of her level of alertness that allows her to write. Just another reason not to believe her.

fore sam, I had my glasses off in the pictures. I\'m nearly blind without them. Maybe that\'s behind whatever look you claim to see in my eyes. (I can\'t voluntarily change the look of my eyes, in fact much of the time I can\'t even voluntarily smile, that generally only happens if it\'s automatic.) My mom certainly used to complain when I took them off (which I did/do often) that I \"looked myopic\".

As for the rest, life is sometimes more complex than you want it to be. I\'m a non-speaking autie who has also been a speaking autie and a sometimes-speaking autie, who was misdiagnosed as psychotic (in part because of some relatively common (but misguided) coping mechanisms). I personally don\'t see myself as that different from many speaking auties I know, except in my mode of communication and various consequences of that. It\'s other people who put all the baggage in whether someone speaks or not. I know speaking auties who look stranger than I do, and non-speaking ones who look more normal, and all combinations. I can\'t really help my appearance, although even if I could I doubt I\'d find it worth the energy.

I repeat: My appearance is not a claim to anything. It\'s how I move (or in some cases more like how I don\'t move). My communication method is how I best communicate in language, if I communicated best through speech or sign language or some other means I would use those means just as readily. I didn\'t even pick the strangest-looking pictures of me for Getting the Truth Out, I left those out.

I can\'t voluntarily control enough body parts at the same time to accomplish the feats of acting you accuse me of. That amount of physical control vanished ages ago, probably due to some combination of the motor losses I was experiencing already and the neuroleptics I was put on that can cause permanent brain damage. I can get one body part going, maybe two at times, but then some other part goes back to how I normally look, that\'s why my efforts to pass only amounted to \"passing for weird\". A lot of the \"look\" you see on me is basically conservation of voluntary movement, as far as I can tell, because tracking all those body parts would end in overload and frustration.

"Anyone who listens to her foolish nonsense won't help their kid.She is a darling of Pharma by making autism look better than it really is with her acting. Your claiming she is autistic doesn't change the fact that she can't have it both ways. She is either schizophrenic and verbal or autistic and non-verbal, or autistic and verbal as some say. Some of this must be a lie."

The most common misdiagnosis from the 1950s until at the earliest for autism was schizophrenia. There is no way that your wilful ignorance of this fact changes it... I recommend you get used to that. You'll only look stupid by insisting otherwise, and that is something that Sam does not need his dad doing.

"I think she's making a mockery of low functioning autistics who will never be able to read and write and will spend their lives in institutions. I don't believe her."

But you expect us to believ you about Sam? Cuts both ways, John. Cuts both ways.

Personally, I wouldn't go against your son's autism diagnosis. And it's not up to you to cast doubt on Amanda's.

"She's going to lots of trouble to save some credibility here and, in the process, contradicting herself.She went on the offensive with Droopy which is typical of liars."

Now you're losing it, John.

"There are other clues in the Getting the Truth Out thing that make it look like she's lying while posing for the pictures. Can you read faces?"

She happens to like those activities. My ex-wife was in a gathering of autistics in Pennsylvania the other year, and she met Amanda. Amanda is for real. I've seen the video footage. You need to rethink your ideas, John.

"That dazed look in her eyes looks like more overacting. My son used to look something like that. He still can't read, write or talk but that dazed look is mostly gone. I would expect her eyes to look more alert as an indication of her level of alertness that allows her to write. Just another reason not to believe her."

You really up on the eyes research in autism, John? My daughter's in an article at the forefront of that research. You have a lot of learning to do, John, before you're anywhere near ready to argue the toss on this sort of thing. A BA in psychology doesn't cut it.

Wow, Best, you're a real big man, insulting and badgering a disabled person. Do you also abuse pets and small children? If you had actually served as an officer in the field, you would have been killed by your own troops. You're a poor excuse for a human being.

i know amanda personally, online, on the phone (yes i have listened to her via her communicator machine and at times i have also spoken to and/or heard her home-aides over the phone), and will meet her in person in about a month's time. she is real. she is maybe one of the realest people i know. as others mentioned, she had long ago admitted to all these things (past mis-dx, echolalia of inaccurate things, etc.) that you guys think are news.

i know "that other person on youtube" online, and though that woman believes what she is saying, she is totally wrong. she recently accused one of my online friends (other than amanda) of copying her and another of being a stalker. she admitted to amanda that she had a problem with thinking people were copying her, and was going to work on it. then she stopped working on it. i wish she would go back to working on it, because a bunch of us considered her a friend... and would like to again one day.

i don't like to presume things about people's intelligence based on opinions they may have or thngs they may or may not be able to do. i know that perhaps there may be other issues causing you to be unable to read her blog. so i will not say something rude about you, but i really think you should try to read it. maybe, if you break down each post into paragraphs and read it in small chunks, you could manage. i have 2 MA degrees involving literature, and i find her writing to be good, and sometimes literary, but she is mostly very down-to-earth as well.

if my husband and i ever have children they will probably be autistic. i have learned more about how to help them (yes, the neurodiversity people DO believe in helping, teaching, getting medical treatment for, etc. autistics!) from her blog than i have from most other autism sites and i have been reading up on this off and on for the past 10 years. people who currently have autistic kids (ie present time application) also find her blog useful.

David, It's not so much that I doubt her diagnosis. It's the fact that she changes her diagnosis to suit her purpose. What should we believe? She's trying to pawn herself off as an autistic who does not want to be cured. Would Kathleen Seidel have anything to do with her if she did want to be cured? If she's actually a paranoid schizophrenic who does not want to be cured and has convinced herself that she is autistic, I don't think that would matter to Seidel. Someone who bashes scientists who help children is liable to do absolutely anything to promote such a deranged agenda. Common sense demands that this whole scenario be looked at skeptically. Amanda may be one very screwed up person. Whether part of her diagnosis is a high functioning form or autism really doesn't matter. The important thing here is that this paranoid schizophrenic is not representative of severely autistic children who can't do anything for themselves. The fact that she is an important cog in the insanity of neurodiversity demands suspicion. That suspicion becomes one with more merit with the accusations of Droopy and this letter stating a different diagnosis than autism. Reports from sources who I will not name that she can, in fact, speak are enough to convince me she is a fraud no matter what she says in her defense. Just as every person in prison claims they are innocent, I choose not to believe this woman. My choice fits nicely with my opinion that no parent could be insane enough to go along with the ideals of neurodiversity without having a hidden agenda or being pitifully stupid. Now, what is your guess about how Amanda allegedly lost her language? You claim autism is genetic. If it were genetic, she would not lose language that she had as a teenager. If she really did lose it and can't talk now, something must have happened to cause that. Did she have more mercury containing vaccnes? Did the estrogen get rid of some of it so she could talk for some time and then more mercury cause her to lose that language? Did she become hysterically mute? What do you think? How does Amanda explain this? And, as far as wearing glasses goes, I wear them too. When I'm without them, my gaze will appear much more intense while I try to gain some focus. It won't look spaced out in the least. So, I don't buy that explanation either.

Anon, Your neurodiverse tactic of character assassination won't work here where I can defend myself without having my comments deleted. I got along quite well with enlisted men and got them out of all sorts of trouble with higher ranking officers. The allegedly disabled person I'm talking about is the spokesmodel for an insane group of sadists called neurodiversity. They put her "out there" and they can accept the blame if she takes some abuse. Perhaps they should rethink their crazed agenda of telling people that curing autism is killing the autistic person. I am going to disagree with that idiocy publicly and, if this allegedly disabled person takes some shots in the process, it's the fault of the cult leaders who are using her.

You have a tunnel vision view of human life, Mr.Best. Anything outside of your view is automatically a lie - but you can not prove this without abusing the crap out of people who disagree with you. And that frustrates you.

Well of course it does - because you are a poor excuse for a human being. It is clear that you belong in the 19th century because that is where your attitude comes from. In case you didn't notice - it's 2007, not 1893. Start living in the real world!

PS - Autism was mis-diagnosed as schizophrenia before and after Kanner, as far back as 1908. So much for the mercury theory!

And expect a setback in your son's progress despite the treatment you are using. Because he is Autistic for life. That's what happened to Amanda, and I'm sure it's happened to others as well.

"That dazed look in her eyes looks like more overacting. My son used to look something like that. He still can't read, write or talk but that dazed look is mostly gone. I would expect her eyes to look more alert as an indication of her level of alertness that allows her to write. Just another reason not to believe her."

I understand where you are coming from with this. I have students who are considered to have "severe autism" and at this point they are unable to communicate with assistive tech devices. Some have a few signs (e.g. "want") and I have been able to teach some of them to use pictures to communicate. I fully understand the concept of "scattered skills." I know that many autistic children and adults can excel in one area and have extreme deficits in other areas.

Maybe I am being to cynical but it is difficult to believe that someone (without a physical disability) can communicate in such a sophisitcated manner but still continue to have marked skill deficits in other areas.

Most of the autistic students that I have worked with who are considered "severe" or present with behaviors and/or skill deficits similar to Amanda also have a limited ability to attend to an activity for any length of time. They would not be able to type or communicate such lengthy thoughts.

I hope that I am wrong and that my students will progress to being as "autistic" as Amanda is some day.

I would love to be able to have a real conversation with them and have them be able to respond in their own thoughts instead of having to assume what they are communicating.

You have said that Sam is able to speak a few words. Does he have any other way to communicate (pictures, sign, device)? Just curious.

also i want to add that, especially as a parent of someone who is neurologically different from the norm (let's just say it: neurodivergent), you really should not say rude things about crazy people. psychiatric system survivors and autistics have a lot in common. we get looked at funny because we act in "socially inappropriate" ways, even if our different behaviours are not hurting anyone. statistics show that most of us (in either group) are not dangerous, but the society thinks we might be, because of what is shown in the media.

i don't personally have a psych dx but i have had plenty of friends who had (both inside and outside the autistic community), and they are some of the most interesting people i know. so, please show respect to your fellow humans with mental problems.

PS: neurodiversity is not a cult. it's a fact of life. there are all kinds of brains out here, wired all kinds of ways.the pro-neurodiversity-acceptance movement, is also not a cult. it's also not that well-organized, though lots of people who agree that autistics and other neurodivergents should be accepted AS WELL AS HELPED, communicate with each other. many people strongly involved with this movement are very skeptical, and/or have had training in recognizing cults. we would have noticed if this were one.

Fore Sam, some of your comments are longer than some of her blog posts.i think you could manage to read a few. if you were my student i would send you to the tutoring center to get training on research and how to read something before you give an opinion about it.

Teacher, I don't think paranoid schizophrenics have any trouble reading and writing. That's one way that we are sure they are not misdiagnosed. Sam says a word once in a while. He does not say any consistently yet. He responds to what's said to him so that it is clear he understands everything. Since he's still very much autistic though, he does not always respond but those times are now rare.

Rita, Neurodiversity is very much a cult. Most of the members don't realize they are in it or the harm that they are doing by belonging to it. The thing I'm giving an opinion on here is not the minutiae that Amanda is bogged down in but, whether or not she is telling the truth. It's not necessary for me to read her every word to determine that. I think she's lying. The problem is that she seems to believe she's telling the truth. Perhaps her problems with reality prevent her from knowing what's true anymore.

I am who I am. I tell the truth about that. I am not an actress. Nobody hired me. I am not attention-seeking. I\'m an autistic person with an interest in particular human rights issues. I was once misdiagnosed with schizophrenia (and told to act accordingly, and did for a time), just as my sprained finger was once misdiagnosed as a broken finger (and I acted as if it was broken, so did my doctors). I am not an imitation of some other person or persons. I am not a fraud.

However, you may read things into what I say that are not there. If you get bent out of shape when I say I can\'t use speech for communicative purposes and you later find out that I used to speak or that I have some non-communicative speech, it\'s not my problem that you flip out about it. It\'s yours, for assuming that every non-speaking autie developed the same way.

If I say I am diagnosed as autistic and was diagnosed at a certain point in time, and you assume that means I have had no misdiagnoses since then, then it\'s your problem if you think I\'m a liar on that basis, because I\'m not and the state has seen the records to prove it. Not my problem if you don\'t understand that that can happen.

But I can tell from your pattern of argument against me, that you\'ll say anything, even if it doesn\'t make sense: In one breath you\'ll be claiming I can\'t be as disabled as I am and still write, in the next you\'ll be telling me I\'m copying someone else (who can write and who doesn\'t want to be cured and who, unlike me, regards herself as low-functioning). One moment I\'m a paid actress hired by Kathleen Seidel as part of some neurodiversity conspiracy, the next moment I\'m an attention-seeking person who\'s done all this on my own for some stupid self-aggrandizement. It doesn\'t matter if what you say makes sense or hangs together, as long as it discredits me (or others with my opinions) in some way.

I\'m dealing with reality here. I have no clue what you\'re dealing with except a lot of misdirected hatred of autistic people who disagree with you.

Amanda, What if I asked some doctor to tell you you were normal. Would you then act normal? You claim you're not an actress but, in the same breath, you admit to acting how others tell you to act. So, who told you to start acting autistic? There aren't any sane autistic people who disagree with me. The sane ones want to be cured. How can someone hate autistic people who wants only to cure them? Like I've said before, I feel sorry for you that you've been duped by Neurodiversity into believing you should not take measures to improve your ballast existenece. But, now that your diagnosis is questionable, I don't feel that way. I don't think you can bullshit your way out of this. It's time to stop harming autistic children with your nonsense.

Amanda Bagg's is 26 years old. That means she was born in 1980. Not 1908, not 1940, not even the 1960's (such as was one of the individuals we know she emulates -- an individual who's been consistantly dx'ed autistic since infancy)...1980. Hardly the dark ages. that means she would have benefited from the nenefits of knowledge regqarding autism such as it was in the 1980's. "Childhood schizophrenia' and all the rest of this (typical of Amamda's) attempts to misdirect minimise and explain away are very suspect for this reason alone. Add in that one of Amanda's earlier claims (if she hasn't renigged and backtracked out of this one since) was that her mother forged documents in a stunning move that involved the entire world including anyone who witnessed Amanada (including her wiggling her fingers under the desk at schools etc) all avenues, all school counselors, every last individual in the medical profession, anyone anywhere were hypnotised my Amanda'a omnipotent mother into believing this profoundly autistic woman was normal, a genius even. Sound a bit far out to you? It does to a few others too. It also leaves her handy posting of documents tobe pretty darned suspsct as well (I guess she's had 'forgery on her mind' for quite some time).Diagnosed as schoziphrenic in 1997 -- again, this is 1997 not 1907 -- ten years ago, not a century ago.. and just two years before her first diagnosis of autism? was that the same year she attended a university as a forged genius? I can't keep track of the convinient twists and turns in this story to be honest, but I'll give her credit that she's always ready with an ansewr, an explanation to be instituted and given nearly before the observation has left one's fingers. Incidentally I understand that offer to meet her (with caseworker etc in tow) is open to nearly everyone.. except Droopy (surprise surprise).

What college WAS it you attended Amanda? (surely somebody there would recall you flopping about like a fish during lectures).What was the 'left due to nervous breakdown' part you've articulated fairly recently (well into your 'autism' phaae of life)?Also out of curiousity WERE you ever IN the JRC or is that just another handy tool in your cause, done on the backs of those who wre there?

I understand Droopy can (and when with somene she trusts which understandably now that trust is much harder to find) can and does readily state the specific names of places she's been institutionlized in, is rather proud of her (genuine as it happens) experiences as a university student. I've also obvsered that this woman you've ironically called schizophrenic is right out there in her videos, in public places, has posted a movie of one of her home help assistants, where are your's Amanda? why is your nearly one-man act (aside from your cohort Laura's accasstional cameo appearance) always a one man act? If you have 'staff' (and who's ever heard of home help providers being called this?) are there nearly all your waking hours as youv'e indicated, why do we never see or have evidence of them? Why aren't you 'out on the town' where people would know and be friendly with you, the 'resident autistic' like they seem to be with this woman you've chosen to use for your purposes?For the record there's no problem with schizophrenic people in and of themselves,but however some take grave issue with liars and frauds (of any 'neurological sway') -- particularly those who prey on actual disabled autistic people to do it. No, Amanda, the end does not justify the means here, in your efforts to be some great autism advocate, taking advantange of at least one truly autistic person, in particular one you one you know doesn't have the capacity to fight back and defend heself from this) in your efforts is just unacceptable, unforgivable.

The irony isn't lost either in the fact that you make some twisted cry about 'language' and discrimination based on various levels of ability in 'standard language' yet its precisely this which you levy against this women, simply because she doesn't in fact have quite the writing and verbal skills (yes I said verbal) skills that you do, you run havoc on her with your's and your little fan club ever eager to subscribe, eats it up. You should just be ashamed of yourself. One has to wonder how you ever sleep at night, what amount of psychotropics must it take to eradicate your conscience enough for slumber.

Anon, I don't have any disorders. She's harming children by presenting a false picture of autism and by telling unwise parents that autism should not be cured. This works to the benefit of the drug companies who poisoned our kids and to the kids' detriment. The message she gives is that severely autistic children who act like her can grow into competent adults. This is not true. Severely autistic children will never improve unless the mercury is chelated out of them or some other treatment proves effective. In the meantime, parents who listen to this bullshit may miss a limited opportunity to help their children. This bitch and all of her associates are sadistic creeps. They know exactly what they are doing and how it is harming children. Nothing any of them say should ever be believed.

1. I never claimed droopy was schizophrenic. I don\'t know where anyone got that one.

2. I never claimed to go to the Judge Rotenberg Center. I made a post about how similar things happened at places I went. I never would have claimed to go to JRC because I never did go there.

3. You can hear my staff in the background doing things while I was filming Laura. I don\'t generally film them because of privacy. Yes, they\'re called staff here -- there is not only one place or way of talking in the universe.

4. I don\'t get out all that often, and when I do, I don\'t like to make videos most of the time. I\'m sure if I did make videos of it I\'d get accused of emulating someone who already makes videos about going out. (But if I don\'t I\'m accused of being incomplete in an emulation that flat-out doesn\'t exist.)

Fact: Amanda was born and bred in the lovely state of California (before making a rather suspect cross country movie speficaly with the goal of moving next to Laura T for ease of collaboration), California is one of the most notoriously progressive states America has. I find it pretty unlikely that she'd have encountered one so severaly 'backwoods' in mentality, let alone conviniently apparently a sea of them in succession.

By contrast, the woam she targets happens to live in the midwest, always has, actually was first diagnosed by a small town family doctor and just before she reached the age of 2 (which in 1966 such an early diagnosis was the most unusual aspect of all of this as typically and since even now such early diagnoses are for 'educational purposes only' and not a formal dx until a child is 4 or 5 years old).

In the case of this woman Amanda largely models herelf and her story after, she was at birth deemed to a high likelyhood of mental retardation, had multiple birth defects, the most prominant of which were visual and it was determined at the younge age of 18 months with bandages removed from her eyes that this was more than the simple 'blindisms' (stereoptypic behaviors also often exhibited by the blind).Her Dx was confirmed by professionals in a nearby larger city at that time.No question, no doubts, no renigging, nothing to 'misremember'...

(Note: Ask Amanda and Laura about 'misremembering' and how they use this word to wash away and simply rewrite their personal histories as suits them and not surprisinly rewritten invariably for the worse)

Just because someone wanted to keep their life private and has no desire to be some Autism Madonna (I'd use the phrase "Autism Diva" but as astute as it is, its been used already) just becaue this woman is NOT some sort of mouthy 'autism advocate,' choosing instead to decline from pissing and moaning and giving the neurotypicals their weekly beating (odd how they cluster around you for this Amanda, they just can't get enough of you telling them how they are damned if they do and damned if they don't), because this woman chooses to not be a part of that drama and crap and has never had any desire to be famous, is not an attention-whore such as yourself, you take full advantage.

Keep trying to cram her 42 years into your 26, keep teling yourself and your friends how its 'all for a good cause' and so it doens't really matter what you do, what 'little white lies' are involved if it gets your browbeating 'advocate message' out there.

Most of all, keep covering your ass. Amanda . Even the Unibomber, brilliant as he was, took a fall eventually. You're brilliant maybe every bit as much as him (and every bit as devious and calculating assuradly), but sooner or later as with him, this you do is going to come to an end.I cant help but think this really is "Ted Kzinski Does Autism."Nobody died due to your antics that I can point to, but that makes what you do no less insiieous.

If you have no qualms about any of this (and I have to wonder what other unsuspecting souls out there are victimized by you, what parts that manage to not be direct plagurizing of droopy, from whom then are those?),

then think about this:

You may as well have put on black face, Al Jolson style, and gotten out there reciting Dr King speeches, since what that sort of behavior would've done in its time to the Black civil rights movment is what you do now to autism civil rights. Live with that Amanda, put your head down on your pillow at night knowing this.

what ABOUT the college you attended? Care to tell us how you went from YOUR 'three months at a public school (and didn't you just get done saying elsewhere, maybe it was on LiveVideo that you HAD in fact been in public schools before> Make up your mind),,what college was that that took people bounding themselves around like fish (such as you describe you had done only briefly before duing your high school stint)

and what ABOUT that "nervous breakdown' that caused your exodus from said college? (since somehow the laying about behaving in full 'trainwreck maximum LFA jaunt evidently went un noticed there.. I'd really like you to elaborate on that a bit more if you would too).

And what ABOUT your mother's 'doctoruing of documentation' and mystical abilities to convince anyone who ever observed you that there was 'nothing wrong with' you and that in fact you were a 'genius'?

Somehow in your selective respoonses you never quite get around to some of this.

Severely autistic children will never improve unless the mercury is chelated out of them or some other treatment proves effective.

There is another treatment. It's called ABA. Getting the mercury out of their bodies won't get the job done properly and without ABA any improvement that might come from chelation will go right down the gurgler because there hasn't been any remedial psychological treatment. For example, how old is you son psychologically? How old is he physically? Would any child be able to cope with the difference? If you say yes you're stupider than I thought you were!

But this question would never have occurred to you would it because of your own psycho issues!

"David, How do you know the first diagnostician wasn't right and the next one got it wrong?"

How do you know that the first wasn't wrong and that the the next one got it wrong? You should be providing the evidence since it's your claim being disputed.

When I do a case review, I ask: What am I reviewing the case for? Is it purely an academic exercise? If it is, I shouldn't really do it. If not, then why? If it is to rediagnose, then I need to know why. If I'm going to end up doing that, I have to be sure that the earlier diagnostician was indeed wrong in his or her diagnosis. So I have to be sure that - upon re-examination - a client did not actually fit the previous diagnosis and that the client's presentation was better explained by a proposed new one.

This is a standard of practice that I would expect from any diagnostician worth his or her salt.

Since the medical practitioner in Amanda's case had more information to go on than even I have (and I do have some documents of Amanda's on file) - and since that medical practitioner certainly has better diagnostic skills than you do, I'm going with Amanda's practitioner. Especially since you have not put forward a properly essayed diagnosis supporting your assertion of her being schizophrenic, and neither have you put forward a properly essayed objection to her existing diagnosis.

Do both of those, and I'll start believing that you have something to offer in Amanda's case. In the absence of any relevant information held by the maker of her current diagnosis, you will be completely unable to do that.

Stop being petty, John. Amanda doesn't need this, and neither does Sam. And you are really not showing a good image of what the dad of an autistic kid should be by doing all this.

"Anon, I don't have any disorders."

Actually, in Kellyan terms, you do: you are using personal constructions repeatedly despite their consistent invalidation; you are trying to make reality match up to your constructs (which is what Kelly called aggression); you insist that your core constructs on this matter are valid, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary (which Kelly called hostility).

Your insistence that you are always right and can never be wrong here just fuels further everyone's belief that you are psychologically disordered, aggressive and hostile.

Question is, John: is that the sort of dad that Samuel Best needs (or even wants)? Because people's perceptions of Sam will be coloured by their perceptions of his dad. And you're not doing the best ('scuse unintended pun) for him by giving the impression of being a psychologically disordered, aggressive and hostile man.

Surely, John, you can do better than this with Amanda. You've changed the way you talk to me and it's done away with the tradition of insult, and it's even been known to throw up a point upon which we have been able to agree! So we know that you are better than this.

you are totally right-I just watched the flute thing twice-she is NOT playing that song that we hear. she may be doing something else, but she is for sure not playing that song. what the hell? she is not even a GOOD actress...

As the one making the claim against Amanda, you actually have a lot to prove.

If you give up, it's a sign that you know you've lost before you even started.

Just saying that you think she's a fraud is no evidence that she is a fraud; and her evidence is well-enough in order that a court of law would fall down on her side should you (or anyone silly enough to try it on) try to file charges.... you (or they) would get laughed out of court the way the Geiers got laughed out when they claimed to be viable expert witnesses in that case.. was it RhoGam or something?

"Any sane person realizes that anyone preaching the credo of the Neurodiversity cult is abusing children."

Pull the other one, John. That, said in court, would get you sectioned within the hour.

"Anonymous said... It's funny how some of the ND members WANT amanda exposed and want her out of their "crowd". One day the entire truth will come out."

wow I didn't know the NDs wanted to out her too. I thought I read somewhere that she moved to be close to her lover. Maybe that is Laura? I will never understand the autistic mind. How can you know you are gay and not be able to wipe your own butt? The mind is truely amazing.

"Anonymous flute critic: are you familiar with the concept of audio/video synchronization? YouTube videos often play out-of-sync. I have seen and heard her play in person."

Yes I am familiar with it. It's strange how her fingers are perfectly in sync with the music but her breathing isn't. She isn't playing that flute. Call it what you want, but her fingers would not be perfectly in sync with the music when the notes change but yet her mouth wide open with the music coming out had she really been playing it.

John have you seen the videos of Droopy? Isn't she a lot like your son? I think they are practically identical aren't they in the way they rock and flap and everything. Droopy's a big fan of radioshack, just like John is a big fan of race tracks. Droopy is showing signs of paranoid psychosis. I find that interesting.

Kids, you can't have it both ways, you can't sit there and cry that Amanda was 'erroneously diagnosed' by professionals and cry that schizophrenics have rights too, they're not crazy, then in the same breath proceed to make your own silly laymaen 'diagnoses' of drooy over the internet for purposes of trying to discredit her.

Droopy's 'showing signs of' simply being what she is, an autistic woman who's made a statement about what's been done to her and who's moving on with her life the best she can inspite of the fact she's been victimised by this predator and her supporters.

As much as Amanda and friends obviously would like Amanda to be able to trade places with droopy (swapping diagnoses with her if they could),

Let's review:

Several months ago after meeting and interacting with Amanda for a duration of a couple of months (in which droopy went all out to appease and try to be friends with Amanda and ended up being quite manipulated in the process), droopy expressed in her peronsal online dieary hurt over the experience and what's been done to her.

Droopy initially hadn't stated the person's name to whom she was referring. Amanda, instantly recognising herself in droopy's online diary, took it upon herself to attack droopy from her own website, even linking to droopy's blogspot (perhaps in the hopes of chasing droopy back into internet obscurity to be able to resume her 'borrowing' antics without any resistance whatsoever).

Amanda did in that commentary in fact attempt to transfer her paranoid schizophrenia diagnosis onto droopy by indicating that droopy suffered the very same sorts of psychosis that Amanda had in fact been diagnosed with. Amanda has since removed that commentary.

Seveal months later, Amanda again begins 'morphing' and changing her 'style' and even physical behaviors (from her previously rigid 'catatonia with finger flicking' bits) to parodying droopy, right down to her mannerisms and style of text.

Amanda had previously warned droopy she was going to persist in copying droopy as she felt when she felt, particularly on Amanda's own blog as well as on YouTube.

Once again, in her own defense and in an attempt to curb the situation, droopy again namelessly identifies the situation, this time in a YouTube video, to make thsoe around her aware of the situation. This being the only goal, she was successful.

You'll notice that its these other people who on their own and very quickly, pick up on and identify who droopy's talking about. Look at the comments under droopy's video.Ask yourselves why might that be?Perhaps its due to the validity of droopy's statement and that Amanda does become increasingly brazen and obvious in her encroachments.

Amanda quickly starts in again busily explaining all this away again and as quickly as she can, slaps a few 'documents' up on her page as proof', links to them her YouTUbe Profile, sets her YouTube account to 'approval only' on comments and makes a run for it to LiveVideo to resumed her act there.

At about this time someone else discovers this letter written by Amanda and begins to put the obvious 'two and two' together.

Droopy's been remarkably stalwart and non-agressive during this whole ordeal, while Amanda and friends have quite gone on the the offensive in attacking droopy in their combined efforts to 'defend' justify and above all elese and 'explain this all away (aka 'blame the victim' or 'character assasination').

Amanda with her politickiing and posturing (all meanings applicable), clearly has an agenda,droopy, meanwhile, has none.

Droopy has been professionally diagnosed as autistic since her toddlerhood.Amanda 'trainwreck' Bagg's claims a profesisonal's very non-commital 'discription' of her at age 14 'describes autism' (read it again folks, it doesn't).. no diagnosis whatsoever in fact made at that time, and above all else, Amanda waits until age 14 even for this much of a reference to her 'trainwreck status' to be made at all.

Droopy was never diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic,Amanda however, has been.

How would radioshack know all this about droopy? A person who is a paranoid psychotic thinks everyone is out to get them. That's droopy to a "t." Droopy is passing herself of as someone she isn't, that is, a nice person. Droopy desperately needs to get some help and to get a life.

If droopy was dx'd so many years ago she probably has papers somewhere that say she has childhood schizophrenia. Whether or not she does, she is acting out her paranoid psychosis in textbook fashion. John is, of course, using her to bash Amanda who now is beyond help with ALA apparently. How about Droopy? Should she be chelated, John?

It's typical of you nitwits to defend a liar and bash Droopy. She's one of you who doesn't want to be cured. But, your lying spokesmodel is more important than a true autistic person to you since all you do is harm autistics with your bullshit. Why don't you go blow the CEO of Eli Lilly.

Wait I get it.. Amanda's perfoming "Tommy" and her adorers are playing the part of the dumbased cultmembers, right?That's gotta be it becuase no one could possibly be this stupid in real life.The orignal by The Who was crappy enoough but even it was better than this nonsense.

Amanda Baggs is autistic and keeps getting 'autisticer' like Michael Jackson is white and keeps getting whiter. Give it up already, its over, you lose.

On what basis? Apart from the drivel you've posted here, I mean... none of which has any clinical or scientific background.

"She hasn't said anything to convince me otherwise."

That's because you don't want to be convinced. Or because you have litle understanding of things.

Since when were you an authority on anything?

Like I said earlier, I'll go with the person who diagnosed her in the documents she's posted on her blog. She's done more to demonstrate her being autistic so far than you have to demonstrate that Sam is! Who should people believe?

David, Your sanity is still pending. The woman was caught in a lie about her diagnosis, about whether or not she can speak, using details from a true autistic person's life and phoney flute playing. Her ability to use language has nothing in common with low functioning autistics who can't communicate at all. She is nothing but an actress. The important thing though, is that her message is always one of absolute insanity, that autism should not be cured. She is trying to pawn herself off as a low functioning autistic which she is not. She makes it look like all low functioning autistics can live a decent life which they can not. They will be institutionalized and will not get the help they need because of asholes like her who make it look like their lives are not that bad. Their lives absolutely suck. There is not one good thing that can be said about being a low functioning autistic. It is a nightmare and they need to be cured. That's the sham she is perpetrating.

No kiddingif bullshit feigning autism 'pathological embellishing' to put it as nice as its gonna get, and targetting innocent actual autistics in the process are their idea of 'Autism Advocacy' and 'Autism Activism' then I really feel for and pity autistics everywhere, and it sure isnt because of their disability --its because with dipshits like this 'on their side' they haven't a hope in hell of ever getting their rights respected.

Trying to attribute your fraud leader's mental illness onto her victim and targetting someone in just the way you should be objecting to, "good job advocating for autistics" you asshats.

They cry for mercy when the focus is rightfully on the perpetrator of this fraud, but think nothing of trying to turn the focus on one particular victim of her's, think nothing of persuing in a rather obvious and viscious fashion the attemptint to swap places between Aamanda and her victim (and pretty much demonstrating and giving further validity to droopy's claims in doing so), targetting an innocent autistic woman for her 'crime' of actually BEING an autistic person and then a non politial one at that...

If THIS is Amanda and her flunkies 'autism commmunity's' idea of 'advocating/activism for autistics' will somebody please be sure to let us know when they decide to target and abuse an autistic person so we may know the difference.

"Like I said earlier, I'll go with the person who diagnosed her in the documents she's posted on her blog. She's done more to demonstrate her being autistic so far than you have to demonstrate that Sam is! Who should people believe?"

One has to wonder why she needs to try so hard to convice people she is autistic. Every autistic I have ever met it shows immediately. Why is she trying so hard to convice someone? She is weaving an interesting web.

"David, A comment you made on Prometheus' blog indicates that you only observe a truce on my turf."

You mean this comment?

-----------------------Ah, Prometheus.....

But you forget.... John isn't really interested in the science. He doesn't understand it. He doesn't want to understand it. He just wants to get some money.

And he daren't have a go at my credentials anymore, so he's taken to having a go at other people...

Pretty sad, really.-------------------------------

That comment isn't a truce-breaker. I'm merely stating a fact in that comment. You are obviously not interested in the science, and your aim to extract money from a well-known pharmaceutical company has been plastered (by you) all over the internet. And, since I have my degree certificate as my avatar, you can't have a go at my credentials any more (since you would make yourself look stupid in doing so!), so you are having a go at Amanda. Facts, John. Facts.

"That makes you a hypocrite."

No, it doesn't. It makes me someone who tells it as it is. To have broken any truce, I would have had to state in public (since entering such a truce) that you are an imbecile, a fuck-wit, a dumb twunt, or any other insulting name or descriptor. I have refrained from doing so. You, on the other hand, have not.

Bullshit. To the uneducated Autism is NOT obvious at all. It looks like a number of things - including schizophrenia! Unless you are a trained psychiatrist thoroughly proficient with the DSM-IV you have no way of knowing that.

The woman was caught in a lie about her diagnosis, about whether or not she can speak, using details from a true autistic person's life and phoney flute playing. Her ability to use language has nothing in common with low functioning autistics who can't communicate at all. She is nothing but an actress.

Who said she was low functioning? In a lot of Autistics who aren't HFA there are oddities in bits and pieces of som Autistics make up that allow them to be able to do things. Like type on a computer keyboard for example - thanks to technology.

Has anyone read that mom26childrens blog today? What a nutcase. First the is talking about her kids 16th birthday which is a negative tone to begin with, then she is raving about 2 unknown woman she claims is posting nasty things about her on here. I guess she doesn't realize that more than 2 people in the world do not like her, what's a Gag bag?

Anonymous twerp, If you cared about this lying bag of swill, you'd convince her to try to cure herself. All you care about is using her as a spokesmodel for neuroinsanity. Of course, you can't cure someone of autism who only has paranoid schizophrenia.

Without a lot more improvement, there will, sadly, be no other option.

BULLSHIT!! Unless you really hate your son you won't do such a callous thing no matter what. Institutions are inhumane and should be shut down completely. Take fucking responsibility for your son and commit to NOT putting him away no matter what!

Droopy [speaking as radioshack] this is low, even for you. I really wish I thought you could change your mind, but I am starting to doubt it. OK, you could but I don't anymore expect that you will. I wish you would have just let your shrink help you with this, like you were starting to.

Anonymous: autistics have to make a community however we can. If that means moving across country to be neighbors with your best friend, it makes sense to do that.

And by the way, the things you people keep acting all surprised about have been known to Amanda's friends for a long time. It's ridiculous to expect a person to have published everything that ever happened to them.

Also, Amanda has never said, not even in private, that Droopy was paranoid schizophrenic. Neither have I. I say she is just wrong about this.

Without a lot more improvement, there will, sadly, be no other option.

"BULLSHIT!! Unless you really hate your son you won't do such a callous thing no matter what. Institutions are inhumane and should be shut down completely. Take fucking responsibility for your son and commit to NOT putting him away no matter what!"

Anonymous - You are either completely ignorant or an insensitive asshole.

Even the so called "assisted living group homes" for adults can be considered similar to "institutionalizing" someone.

It must be nice to be so blissfully unaware of the reality that many parents have to face. There are parents who start worrying about this before their child has even left kindergarten.Having to consider this does not mean they "hate" their child.

Please explain how he should live when I'm dead. This will be the end of your anonymous insults, coward.

You're the coward. You're afraid to commit to looking after your son until you die if need be. There are plenty of people in the world who have the same problem, and no matter what, they will not institutionalize. Because they are brave enough to do so and accept their responsibility.

After you die - you should have the smarts to prepare for that by putting an alternative in place, like a sibling of yours or your son's. NEVER EVER institutionalize.

Only cowards do that.

(And I'm saving this just in case you delete it so I can repeat it ad nauseam until you let it through)

I think it's sad that our tax dollars are going to a disabled person who doesn't seem to be too disabled and she sits at her computer all day making youtube and livewire videos. I guess we're paying for her internet access, the roof over her head, the chair she is sitting in all day, the machine she uses to type one fingered, the voice program she claims is talking for her. Hell if I looked like her, ended up being gay or bisexual, had breasts that hung to my crotch that insurance should pay for a reduction by the way and I was probably not going to amount to anything else I would more than likely take advantage of the system as well. It's easy to fake a disabled person, just ask Phil!

Much as there is no love lost between John and myself here, at least he has the guts to be known by name on any blog. (Yes, I know he posts as Fore Sam, but his posts always contain the header that links to his blogger profile which is where his name is found).

Twerp #1, I wouldn't even wish an autistic child on you. Do you think I would expect one of my siblings to take over my misfortune? Yuh, I'm sure there are lots of people who want to take in autistic adults to have their life utterly destroyed 24 hours a day. Do you have any clue what low functioning autism is like?

There are loads of autistics who can sing and can't talk as a means of communication. Not all of us, mind you, but Amanda is not the only one. I was surprised how clearly she could sing, until I remembered that some years ago I saw a TV program about kids who had that particular aspect. If you read her blog you would have a clue about how this can work.

Also if you watched the video about Laura (I think it was in there, unless it was maybe in the blog comments related to that video), you would hear about how some people can rarely voice for communication, (in an emergency, for example) and when they do, it's something they really mean to say, but other people can rarely voice and it usually comes out something DIFFERENT from what they needed to say. Etc. Etc. So this is not exactly a convenient thing or controllable for one's own convenience. It's just one (or several) of those peculiarities that some autistics have.

And if the person running this blog had any decency he would not allow the publication of ad hominem (do you know what it means?) attacks such as anonymous in #139. I mean how in the !@#$% can you think it's ok to attack a physically disabled person for not having the body shape that you prefer?!

And I would like to use my real name and own my comments, but I don't want my students to be able to find me online.

Much as there is no love lost between John and myself here, at least he has the guts to be known by name on any blog. (Yes, I know he posts as Fore Sam, but his posts always contain the header that links to his blogger profile which is where his name is found).

You, on the other hand...

Cluck Cluck Cluck.

Oh David you are amusing. Whoever said you autistics didn't have a sense of humor was so misinformed. You still following the herd? baaaaa baaaa baaaa

Whatever... you're still a useless individual, with no hope of a future.

Shit, even John's got more pride in what he says than you have. You can't even own up to it!

Says a lot about who you really are.

I can honestly say that I actually respect John for owning up to his comments... I may disagree with most of them, but I respect him for actually owning them with his name, even if he does have a habit of disrespecting anyone who differs from his point of view.

You on the other hand... who are you? A nobody, really. If you were proud enough of your comments, you'd own them like John does.

Rita Lee, There are ad hominem attacks all over this blog. They don't bother me. If Sam doesn't recover, he'll never be cognizant enough to know what a nightmare autism is. If he does recover, he'll thank me for ending that nightmare. And, simpleton, he'll know that his life was a "train wreck" because some assholes decided to save a few bucks by shooting poison into him as an infant. Now shut up and go bother someone else.

I hate to do this, but I feel the same about the anons who want to play silly buggers at my expense. At least when you do it, you own up.

By the way... my blog... it's about educational psychology practice and research, not obsessions with heavy metals.

Post something about ed-psych, and I'll be happy to let it through and respond to it. I get the feeling that you've been fucked about by a whole shitload of professionals (for different reasons to the ones you think, of course). My parents were too, as were me and my ex. Thankfully, my daughter's doing fine. No chelation, no ABA... I do things like Vygotsky would have... and she does okay. I wish I'd kept data, actually... might have been a good practitioner-research study.

Seriously, John... do one about the chelation stuff and demonstrate beyond reasonable doubt that it's working. That is all anyone's asking of you. Why do you refuse to do it?! Your chance to convince a whole shitload of people and you're fucking it off just like that.... it's just silly.

David, If I had him cured, you can bet I'd write about it. It's a long process and he's making progress. I started when he was 8 which is late so I don't know what my odds are but the only thing that can help him is to keep going. I don't know how severe your daughter was/is but Sam was completely oblivious to everything until we started chelating. He had never responded to his name at age 8 and had not made eye contact with me since he was a baby. BTW, I think some comments disappeared. I published them but they didn't show up. Also, I don't have a job. I'm working for myself, back in my old profession. I earned 200% on my money over the weekend and 20% today. I only try to earn 10% per day. I basically told the NHDDC to go screw themselves after they questioned what I was doing with this blog. They would not have been of any use to me. They didn't have any balls.

http://www.awares.org/conferences/show_paper.asp?section=000100010001&conferenceCode=000200010008&id=30&full_paper=1Sorry about the length of the link.

"I started when he was 8 which is late so I don't know what my odds are but the only thing that can help him is to keep going. "

So document it. Get someone to do a CARS pre-test on him, decide on the target changes (be specific, and set a timeframe), and then get someone to do the CARS as post-test. Objective stuff, and easily done. Write it up and send it to Good Autism Practice. Control for confounding variables or at least acknowledge them.... you have a study. Nothing fancy... but it'd be there. Something that would certainly get people thinking.

You have nothing to lose. Even if it didn't get published, you would have said something that was more than 'I say it is so therefore that's how it is', and that can't hurt, can it? At least you'd actually be the only parent to have done such a study. And it's not like you don't have the skills... behavioural observation is definitely BA Psych stuff, I'm certain (hell, I was investigating/evaluating personality testing materials when I was an undergrad!). The offer is there, and I do have authority to put it there, and you have got a good reason to take it up.

Amanda baggs says "I never went through the developmental stage where you lose the abilty to easily reproduce the sounds in foreign languages"

Take one guess which autistic person Amanda stole this from...

There's just one thing:Babies don't have the ability to *reproduce* the sounds, its around the age of 4 months, the ability to hear and *discern* the sounds (which is what the original autistic woman is capable of and the actual milestome never reached by her). Amanda nearly stole the sentence nearly verbatim from this autistic person explaining this other person's phenomenom (claiming it for Amanda's own of course), save for this 'little embellshed' inaccuracy).

Didn't "Rainman" win Oscars etc, being the big hit movie of the year in what? 1984, therefor putting 'autism on the map' such as it was in that year?Wouldn't that make the idea of these backwoodds doctors in the state of California, home of Hollywood, even less likely to manage to miss this?

Didn't Amanda also say she's got an autistic brother, one she claims is 'more autistic' even then her trainwreck self?

How is it then that within one family they'd be able to accurately diagnose one autistic but manage to miss Amanda until 'she 14 and then diagnose her wiht 'paranoid schizophrenia" (also not to be confused with 'childhood schizophrenia")

Makes one wonder if there is in fact an autistic brother, did Amanda see him getting attention, make a strategic plan at 14 to 'decompensate' to convince the world of her own 'autism' to earn herself a little piece of that attention? Afterall, she was documented at that same age to be a 'genius' (a non autistic one who had a nervous breakdown at the university I might point out, and we're still waiting for Amanda's response on this)

It seems nothing is going to stop Amanda, probably not even litigation could do it, not even a court order of some sort to cease or to publicaly admit and apologise, etc. What she's got going here is pathologlical, compulsive and not responding to reason whatsoever, it may be out of her control at this point. I don't see Amanda even at the point of threat (legal or otherwise) ever backing down, ever admitting she's a fraud even when clearly caught in the act, Just like murderers on death row who swear in the face of DNA and everything else to their inmnocense, will likely go to her grave swearing and vowing inspite of all the evidence otherwise, that thsi is her, its really her life, etc, that she's really really autistic... really...

So one of the most anti-biomed moms is now on a national mailing list promoting supplements.

"An offer from : Autism Coach

Sunday, February 18, ABC's Extreme Makeover Home Edition show will feature a makeover for the only family in American known to have five biological autistic children. Each child has had their own bedroom built for them, each room containing a computer installed with Autism Coach software we selected for each child, based upon their age, interests, and level of ability. Stay tuned and watch for Autism Coach to be a blip in the credits!

Also we are proud to introduce the first in a new line of Autism Coach brand supplements, Liquid Carnosine Plus, the first liquid dietary L-Carnosine supplement. We have spent the last two years carefully researching and working with a biochemist to formulate and manufacture this all-natural lemonade-flavored liquid L-Carnosine supplement. The first shipment will be March 1, 2007.

As a special introductory promotion exclusively for Autism Coach customers, if you place an advance order for Liquid Carnosine Plus by March 1, you will receive $2 off per bottle, by entering the promotion code, CARNDISC, while placing the order.

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No her history on newsgroups proves without a doubt that she was suffering the classic signs of Schizophrenia. She believed thoughts were inserted into her head, she was an elf, an alien, you name it. And she has hallucinated all her life, only, after she had decided the autistic kids in her school were ever so neat, suddenly the clear hallucinations (describing them as people and objects, voices etc.) turned into "mere" sensory processing issues. Strange, that.

Some mild autistics get misdiagnosed with Schizophrenia SIMPLEX, i.e. the negative symptoms of Schizophrenia that autism was named after in the first place. But paranoid Schizophrenia is a different animal altogether.

And to the last anonymous - she is what she says? Which "what" are you referring to? The one where she was the perfect textbook Schizophrenic or the one where she is the "lifelong" LFA?

And btw - it is perfectly "usual" for Schizophrenia to leave behind such symptoms as she is experiencing now, especially since her rather exaggerated claims of psychotic delusions seem to have landed her a tad overmedicated. Weight gain and movement disorders are common side effects of antipsychotics.

If anything my bet is she was schizotypal in childhood, although Yale are proposing a type of PDD that is closer to Schizophrenia than autism, and she fits that very well too: http://www.med.yale.edu/chldstdy/autism/mdd.html

(Surprise surprise this is common in people given a PDD-NOS diagnosis)

"And in terms of 'delusions' my one and only 'delusion' that got me diagnosed, came from a fantasy world that I knew was fantasy but desperately wanted to believe in"

So do you admit you lied about all those other (countless!) delusions and hallucinations? Under the influence of a drug you were only given years later? (And what about the LSD you took that sent you psychotic? I remember the sob story you told on ASD forums about how all that happened in an institution where they locked you up for autism. So... which one is true?)

What happened to "I told them I stopped believing it but I still know it's true?" And what about transmitters and aliens and voices in your head and centuries of knowledge beamed into your brain? All lies?

If they were then that is all the more proof that your autism story is bent seven ways to hell too.

Greetings! I just happened to do a search on Google on my product, Liquid Carnosine Plus, when I saw it had appeared on your blog. Maybe I didn't fully understand, but it indicated some anti-biomed person had received my email on Liquid Carnosine. I'm don't think that person was on my email list - not sure how they received my advertisement.

First of all, I currently believe that vaccines are the primary trigger that caused autism for most autistic children today. As the scientific data rolls in, my belief will either be proved or disproved.

My son was diagnosed 11 years ago with PDD NOS. I chose to use biomedical interventions including the gluten and casein-free diet, when virtually all other mothers in my school district did not. This is the primary approach I promote on my web site.

In fact, Child Protective Services came knocking on my door five years ago - sent by the nurse at my son's public school, because I had my son on the gluten and casein free diet. At every IEP meeting she harassed me about my son's diet - continually taking the meeting off topic. More important issues to me were the cruelty, bullying and ostracism of my son on the part of some of the teachers, professionals, and children - driving my son at age 11 to talk about suicide. The Child Protective Services representative only asked me questions about my son's diet and gave the impression of being annoyed and thinking it was pretty ridiculous that she was asked to pay a call simply because of a child being on a special diet. I recently ran into that nurse in a store parking lot and asked her if she was still at the school. She viciously replied with her usual poisonous sneer, "Are you still Will's mother?" That said it all for me!

It's sad when I run into other children from my school district who are the same age as my son and did not put their children on the gluten and casein free diet at an early age – all the children I have run into are much more severely impaired than my son. My son, Will, age 14, is currently diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. He is highly verbal, is a music prodigy, enjoys playing chess and has a flair for math. He taught himself to meditate and currently is studying psychology as part of his school curriculum – currently, he seems to be a pretty happy teenager.

However, one thing I would like to say admist the vitriol that is flying between those who promote biomedical interventions and those who are against them, is that no matter what decisions parents or individuals within the autism community make in terms of treatment - no path is easy. The divorce rate amongst parents with autistic children is over 90%. The life span of parents with special needs children is considerably shorter than other parents. Also, there are many other factors involved in treatment decisions - the need to earn a living, the needs of the parent(s) and other family members, amount of time and money available to help the child in the spectrum, and the mental health and physical stamina of the parents. The path is even harder for individuals within the autism spectrum - and it's totally understandable that they wish to be accepted by themselves and others for who they are. Undoubtedly they have lived through traumatic experiences - and their unhappiness, anger and frustration is totally understandable. I, myself, have a mild case of Asperger's Syndrome and remember the pain of growing up and wondering why felt and perceived things differently from other kids. I accept and am happy with who I am but still advocate for doing everything possible to help children with autism reach their greatest potential. If there’s a contradiction there, so be it – but it works for me. There’s a huge difference between being slightly autistic and being able to live your life and being significantly impaired and requiring assisted living – I’d do everything in my power to work towards higher functioning.

However, if you are going to have a rogue's gallery of people discouraging parents from trying biomedical interventions - this nurse and those who protect and promote abusive professionals like her should be up at the top. Through my web site, I have talked to countless parents who have met her counterpart in other districts. Countless parents have been scared off from using biomedical interventions and in doing so, these ignorant bullies who have no expertise in autism have deprived countless children of fulfilling their potential. I recently spoke with a mother with a young child in my school district - where this nurse still preys upon the vulnerable young parents - from what I heard from her was that the mothers in my area still shunning biomedical approaches.

Vindication occurred recently, when a nutritionist from one of our major Michigan universities appeared on a local radio station and promoted and supported the nutritional interventions for autism for the first time. Also for the first time, a local general practioner MD spoke to me about autism and admitted that he was reconsidering the impact of vaccines. Slowly, the truth is coming out.

As for the path I traveled with Will, we chose to implement intensive interventions(nutritional, ABA, integrative therapies) at an early age. This was in part because I had a retarded brother and had seen the result of doing what authorities figures tell you to do - ending up someone who was highly impaired living a very sad life. My husband and I sacrificed much for our son and I spent years working with Will, and we are glad we did it. The best path of all, of course, would to have been not to have had our son vaccinated in the first place, which many parents have thought about over the years – but all we can do is move forward from where we are.

Best wishes to you - I'm glad that you're working to the biomedical approach.

Whats the point in this? I have scitzo affective disorder and live a nice life I just dont like my doctor because he thinks he knows everything ... just like you people..If she said she was scitzophrenic she probably was then after bad publicity she changed her story. A lot of scitzophrenics are hard to tell apart from normal people.

I'm 19 and it's a rare occasion I see such immaturity, about anything and to take such an important topic and make light of it by name calling and badmouthing, you should be ashamed. How about respecting the inherent differences between us all, no one can force anything like this down anyones throat. It's a touchy subject for everyone, so why not talk like civil human beings or at least try to act your age(19 year old lecturing you on how to be mature not a good sign.) fore sam you've said countless terrible things about Amanda and how well do you know her, yet you get so up in arms about comments directed at Sam make sense to you? Good it shouldn't.

I don't doubt that Amanda Baggs damaged her brain via LSD, magic mushrooms and sexual abuse from her family. None of that brain damage is autism. Autism is mercury poisoning that mnifests itself by the age of 3, not the age of 20.

I was not diagnosed with Asperger's until the age of 19. I always did have some autistic tendencies though such as gastrointestinal problems, meltdowns and social anxiety.

Likewise, Autism is not caused by mercury poisoning - no one knows the true cause.

But as far as Amanda Baggs goes, she is a fraud. She was an extremely gifted student, attending college at age 14 and majoring in psychology. How does someone who is as disabled as she claims to be manage to go on to college, and graduate? Likewise, while autism is often misdiagnosed (or not at all) it has not been associated with schizophrenia since the 1970's. By 1997, autism was a known disorder and had been for over a decade.

Another good question is how does someone suddenly become nonverbal, when they previously had no trouble speaking?

Likewise, she admits to "playing crazy" (her words, not mine) in order to attain certain diagnoses in this letter http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/31329

She is nothing more than an opportunist, and a fraud who plays off of people's ignorance to acquire her 15 minutes of fame.

She and Seidel rip on everything and everyone who does not agree with them. Slander? Baggs and Seidel are the ringleaders. Of course she is a fraud and so is Seidel. Being bullying narrow minded gits does not make you autistic. Even if Baggs did have selective mutism, why is it that she NEVER can speak now? The problem is that those on the neurodiversity bandwagon will never let go. They are mostly self diagnosed nit wits who have never dealt with an autistic child or the nightmarish things that can bring. They just want their 10 minutes of fame. The sad fact is that Seidel and Baggs are frauds while calling everyone who does not agree with them frauds. It pathetic.

I would like to say that recently I simply asked questions and tried to discuss the Amanda Baggs situation on Wrong Planet and i was immediately banned. I believe that Amanda is a fraud and I too was not only threatened by David who is married to the owner of Neurodiversity.com but I was also threatened by staff on WP. Aspies for Freedom, Wrong Planet, and Neurodiversity.com are terrible people propagating a lie. They are so anti-cure they will try to silence anyone who speaks otherwise. You even mention Autism Speaks in a positive light and you'll be ridiculed and/or banned. I would also like like to say that I personally witnessed one of Amanda's supporters post a comment on Wrong Planet with the full name and professional contacts of one of Amanda's most vocal critics. They were attempting to inspire retaliation and harassment towards the individual with misinformation. I suspect the one of the people on Neurodiversity.com to be responsible and probably Kathleen or David. Little do they know they can be charged with a crime based on the laws inspired by anti-abortion websites targeting doctors and in one case one was killed. This law could very well put them in prison if someone were to actually harm the individual. As it stands what they already did was highly illegal. I welcome Amanda and Neurodiversity.com's lawyers. My trump card is the fact that I'm in contact with the FBI's internet crime division or IC3 concerning the illegal act that took places on Wrong Planet. Laws have changed Amanda and ND. You cannot go inspiring violence and harassment against other members who question your fraud. If its not a fraud why is all opposition being silence? I was banned for simply asking questions and debating the facts.

I also want to tell Droopy not to have any fear what-so-ever about Amanda, her handlers, or her lawyer. If these people do take action I'll take action and expose the truth. Don't expect WP to take a stance against Amanda any time soon. They financially benifit from the anti-cure movement. You need only see the book they pimp on the front page of WP to see that. Aspies For Freedom is also a joke of a puppet site. All controlled by the same people who are harassing and interfering with Autism Speaks' efforts to find cures. AMANDA IS A FUCKING FAKE. WAKE UP PEOPLE.

I want to warn the person who owns this blog to protect your identity from the likes of Amanda and the wicked folks at Neurodiversity.com. They can threaten lawsuits all they want but I can prove several felonies commited on their part which is far worse then anything done but us having an opinion protected by the first amendment. Do not trust Dave, Kathleen, or Amanda and her fucking moron lawyers. They will play dirty. They will break the law. They will harass you and your loved ones. They will contact your school, your employment and any one of those things are highly illegal. Keep it up Dave and Kathleen. I will turn your fucking asses in to IC3 so fast your head will spin. They are already investigating you for whats already happened. God help you if that troll matches any of your IPs. You're truly fucked then.

Autistic people are not the same every day of the week, every year fo their lives, or in every situation. I am an autistic woman who has, in my 27 years of life, been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, social anxiety disorder, borderline personality disorder, schizophrenia, OCD, ADD, and a handful of others. I spoke in full sentences at 11 months and sometimes I go nonverbal (unable to speak) for days. I have an IQ of 160, and sometimes cannot process basic information. I can go from the talented overachiever to someone sitting under a table rocking, flapping, and unable to understand speech in a matter of minutes. In school, I was in the gifted classes from first grade on, and in college I couldn't hold a conversation with a professor. Although I know I shouldn't be, I'm ashamed of my "low functioning" moments, and have been able to hide them (for the most part); they come out at home rather than in public. If I was as secure as Amanda, I'm sure I would appear to some to be a "fraud," too; some people cannot understand that a single person can be both "high" and "low" functioning